Oregon REALTOR® Forms define “Business Day” as “any day other than Saturday, Sunday, or a legal state holiday under ORS 187.010.” ORS 187.010 has a comprehensive list of all the legal holidays in Oregon. Several of the days are set up based upon specific days within a month:
- MLK Jr. Day on the third Monday of each January;
- Presidents Day on the third Monday of each February;
- Memorial Day on the last Monday of May;
- Labor Day on the first Monday of each September;
- and Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday of each November.
Other holidays are set based on specific days within the calendar:
- New Year’s Day on January 1;
- Juneteenth on June 19;
- Independence Day on July 4;
- Veterans Day on November 11;
- and Christmas Day on December 25.
The calendric holidays create particular difficulty because they fall on a moving day of the week each year. As a result, ORS 187.010(2) explains how these moving target days are celebrated. When the holiday falls on a Sunday, the next Monday is treated as the legal holiday [e.g. if Christmas is on Sunday, Oregon law says Monday, December 26 is the holiday that year]. When a holiday falls on a Saturday, the Friday before that holiday is treated as the legal holiday [e.g if Veterans Day is on Saturday, therefore Friday, November 10 is the legal holiday that year].
You may find that agencies publish other statements about when holidays are observed or when the agency is closed, such as the Oregon Public Utility Commission, stating that the day after Thanksgiving is a holiday. PUC describes the day after Thanksgiving as a holiday based on State HR Policy No. 60.010.01, that outlays the various days state employees are given as paid holidays; the state policy includes the day after Thanksgiving based on ORS 240.551. ORS 240.551 allows the state Personnel Division to establish holidays for the state government above and beyond ORS 187.010. When the Personnel Division sets up a holiday on a day that is not otherwise noted in ORS 187.010, that is a “holiday” for the government employees, but it is not a holiday for the rest of Oregon and not a holiday for the Oregon REALTOR® Forms.